3 ms·

Open Oscar Server: open-source server compatible with AIM and ICQ clients

67 points by gregsadetsky 1mo ago

ventana 1mo ago
ICQ? Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time... a long time.
- mindcrime 1mo ago
  FWIW, ICQ was being discussed here less than a month ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49224443 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49224443 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49167258 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49167258 OK, OK... to be fair "discussed" is an over statement. Let's say "ICQ was mentioned here less than a month ago. :-)
- derwiki 1mo ago
  As TinCan phones are getting popular in my kid’s friend circle, I am getting second hand pride at her low number like I had (have?) for my ICQ number
- ButlerianJihad 1mo ago
  ICQ and LiveJournal were the two greatest Russian psyops of the 1990s. UIN: 279866
  - moltar 1mo ago
    I think ICQ was from Israel.
    - iddan 1mo ago
      > Originally developed by the Israeli company Mirabilis in 1996, the client was bought by AOL in 1998, and then by Mail.Ru Group (now VK) in 2010.[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICQ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICQ
    - ButlerianJihad 1mo ago
      Okay, Mossad then My ICQ UIN was one of the few online accounts that I completely lost control of. Some "Russian hacker" took it over, by guessing the password, credential stuffing, or some other method, and I noticed that my profile had been usurped into a Cyrillic one. And that was long, long before 2010.
  - ventana 1mo ago
    Actually, ICQ had no relation to Russia in 1990s. It was acquired by AOL in 1998, went through several rounds of enshittification and protocol changes to defeat third party clients which did not show ads, and finally landed in Mail.Ru group in 2010. In about 2-3 years no one cared about ICQ anymore. Then, it slowly died. I registered my account in 1998 (got a 7-digit number starting with 9) and the whole thing felt like a miracle back then. My first employer in 2003 used ICQ as a corporate messenger similar to how we now use Slack. Since I mostly used Linux back then, I was very happy to find centericq, then centerim, then finch. One of my first contributions to an open source project was a small patch to centericq, something about contacts panel resize if I remember correctly. I believe the last time I actually launched any ICQ client was around 2012, and never since then.
    - deleted 1mo ago
      [deleted]
icedchai 1mo ago
Neat. At some early startups, we used AIM similar to how Slack is used today.
himynameisjoeyc 1mo ago
Hey all, If you're looking for a public server to jump into to start chatting on aim again, please check out https://logon.chat/ https://logon.chat/ It is fully backed by OOS :)
CursedSilicon 1mo ago
I was always more of an MSN Messenger guy. But the Open OSCAR Server project is a fantastic labor of love stewarded by a kind soul. They put up with (if not were outright amused at) me digging up the weirdest 3rd party clients I could [1] and just kicking them around against the server software to find bugs [2] [1] https://wiki.cursedsilicon.net/wiki/AIM_Clients https://wiki.cursedsilicon.net/wiki/AIM_Clients [2] https://github.com/mk6i/open-oscar-server/issues/120 https://github.com/mk6i/open-oscar-server/issues/120 [2] https://github.com/mk6i/open-oscar-server/issues/122 https://github.com/mk6i/open-oscar-server/issues/122 [2] https://github.com/mk6i/open-oscar-server/issues/123 https://github.com/mk6i/open-oscar-server/issues/123
- trueno 1mo ago
  i threw the oscar server up on a container at work last year and sent my friends the clients. absolute trip hearing that open door sound again lmao. good times. we all just warned each other for the rest of the day. somehow that experience eclipsed microsoft teams. i suppose thats unsurprising
- Avamander 1mo ago
  Oh how I wish modern chat platforms would let me use a client of my own choosing. It's all so locked down and usually garbage-tier because the user has no choice.
  - krautsauer 1mo ago
    Matrix has lots of choice. Garbage choice. :/
    - CursedSilicon 1mo ago
      Now that's not fair. Matrix gives you plenty of options to be flooded with CSAM or have all your chats become inexplicably unable to ever be decrypted again The future is now!
- Y_Y 1mo ago
  The hacked MSN client from mess.be was amazing. You could spam the "nudge" that made your friend's client take focus and shake and make a noise!
rw_grim 1mo ago
If you want to use Pidgin with it, check out https://github.com/pidgin/retro-prpl https://github.com/pidgin/retro-prpl
snthpy 1mo ago
ICQ was my first messaging experience. Good old times!
elmer2 1mo ago
I remember when I discovered a remote ICQ buffer overflow in high school. I didn't have the skills to gain code execution at the time, but I created an app that could DoS and crash the client of anyone, if I knew their username.
netsharc 1mo ago
The Github page has a link to a Discord chat. Hah, where's the dogfooding?

67 points by gregsadetsky 1mo ago

ventana 1mo ago

ICQ? Now that's a name I've not heard in a long time... a long time.

mindcrime 1mo ago
FWIW, ICQ was being discussed here less than a month ago. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49224443 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49224443 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49167258 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49167258 OK, OK... to be fair "discussed" is an over statement. Let's say "ICQ was mentioned here less than a month ago. :-)
derwiki 1mo ago
As TinCan phones are getting popular in my kid’s friend circle, I am getting second hand pride at her low number like I had (have?) for my ICQ number
ButlerianJihad 1mo ago
ICQ and LiveJournal were the two greatest Russian psyops of the 1990s. UIN: 279866
- moltar 1mo ago
  I think ICQ was from Israel.
  - iddan 1mo ago
    > Originally developed by the Israeli company Mirabilis in 1996, the client was bought by AOL in 1998, and then by Mail.Ru Group (now VK) in 2010.[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICQ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICQ
  - ButlerianJihad 1mo ago
    Okay, Mossad then My ICQ UIN was one of the few online accounts that I completely lost control of. Some "Russian hacker" took it over, by guessing the password, credential stuffing, or some other method, and I noticed that my profile had been usurped into a Cyrillic one. And that was long, long before 2010.
- ventana 1mo ago
  Actually, ICQ had no relation to Russia in 1990s. It was acquired by AOL in 1998, went through several rounds of enshittification and protocol changes to defeat third party clients which did not show ads, and finally landed in Mail.Ru group in 2010. In about 2-3 years no one cared about ICQ anymore. Then, it slowly died. I registered my account in 1998 (got a 7-digit number starting with 9) and the whole thing felt like a miracle back then. My first employer in 2003 used ICQ as a corporate messenger similar to how we now use Slack. Since I mostly used Linux back then, I was very happy to find centericq, then centerim, then finch. One of my first contributions to an open source project was a small patch to centericq, something about contacts panel resize if I remember correctly. I believe the last time I actually launched any ICQ client was around 2012, and never since then.
  - deleted 1mo ago
    [deleted]

icedchai 1mo ago

Neat. At some early startups, we used AIM similar to how Slack is used today.

himynameisjoeyc 1mo ago

Hey all, If you're looking for a public server to jump into to start chatting on aim again, please check out https://logon.chat/ https://logon.chat/ It is fully backed by OOS :)

CursedSilicon 1mo ago

I was always more of an MSN Messenger guy. But the Open OSCAR Server project is a fantastic labor of love stewarded by a kind soul. They put up with (if not were outright amused at) me digging up the weirdest 3rd party clients I could [1] and just kicking them around against the server software to find bugs [2] [1] https://wiki.cursedsilicon.net/wiki/AIM_Clients https://wiki.cursedsilicon.net/wiki/AIM_Clients [2] https://github.com/mk6i/open-oscar-server/issues/120 https://github.com/mk6i/open-oscar-server/issues/120 [2] https://github.com/mk6i/open-oscar-server/issues/122 https://github.com/mk6i/open-oscar-server/issues/122 [2] https://github.com/mk6i/open-oscar-server/issues/123 https://github.com/mk6i/open-oscar-server/issues/123

trueno 1mo ago
i threw the oscar server up on a container at work last year and sent my friends the clients. absolute trip hearing that open door sound again lmao. good times. we all just warned each other for the rest of the day. somehow that experience eclipsed microsoft teams. i suppose thats unsurprising
Avamander 1mo ago
Oh how I wish modern chat platforms would let me use a client of my own choosing. It's all so locked down and usually garbage-tier because the user has no choice.
- krautsauer 1mo ago
  Matrix has lots of choice. Garbage choice. :/
  - CursedSilicon 1mo ago
    Now that's not fair. Matrix gives you plenty of options to be flooded with CSAM or have all your chats become inexplicably unable to ever be decrypted again The future is now!
Y_Y 1mo ago
The hacked MSN client from mess.be was amazing. You could spam the "nudge" that made your friend's client take focus and shake and make a noise!

rw_grim 1mo ago

If you want to use Pidgin with it, check out https://github.com/pidgin/retro-prpl https://github.com/pidgin/retro-prpl

snthpy 1mo ago

ICQ was my first messaging experience. Good old times!

elmer2 1mo ago

I remember when I discovered a remote ICQ buffer overflow in high school. I didn't have the skills to gain code execution at the time, but I created an app that could DoS and crash the client of anyone, if I knew their username.

netsharc 1mo ago

The Github page has a link to a Discord chat. Hah, where's the dogfooding?